Torchwood: Miracle Day - "The New World"Review

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Imagine a day when nobody dies.

By Chris Carabott

Advance Review:Torchwood was initially heavy handed in its approach at marrying concepts from Doctor Who with a very mature setting. Creator Russell T. Davies struggled with finding an appropriate voice and tone for the series, which hampered the quality of Season 1. But these issues were finally ironed out by the end of Season 2 and the show has been on track ever since. The serialized approach of Torchwood: Children of Earth seemed to be a natural fit with the five-part miniseries being a huge critical success.

Miracle Day attempts to improve upon that success with a ten-part serialized story primarily taking place in the United States. With the show now co-produced by Starz, it appears, at least after the first episode, that Torchwood has experienced a nice bump in the budget department as well.

With "The New World", Davies accomplishes a lot in fifty minutes. Here he's tasked with introducing a few new characters, reestablishing old ones (while reintroducing them to a potential new audience), and also setting up this season's unique plot. Davies handles all of this deftly. New characters, CIA Agents Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) and Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), are given plenty of room to develop into their own in what is otherwise a tightly packaged story. Esther and Rex are the driving force of the "What is Torchwood?" storyline and act as a gateway for new audiences into this strange and fantastic world. Bill Pullman is a bit of an anomaly, as his character, convicted pedophile and murderer Oswald Danes, has no initial impact on the main story. However, Pullman is effective at bringing the eccentricities of this vile pervert to life.

Exit Theatre Mode

Davies no longer struggles with finding the appropriate tone for his characters, as both Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) feel like old friends returning to the screen. Despite being out of action for some time, both Cooper and Harkness haven't missed a beat as they jump back into the fray guns blazing. Rhys Williams (Kai Owen) also returns as the ever-important anchor for Gwen who often times finds herself lost in the supernatural. Rhys' attitude and lectures appear to be harsh on the surface but as an Average Joe caught up in a world beyond his imagination, I've always found him quite refreshing. Of course, he plays double duty this time, as someone needs to take care of the new addition to the family, Gwen and Rhys' baby daughter Anwen. Baby Cooper has a couple of surprisingly good moments herself.

Miracle Day finds itself tackling a very unique premise. Imagine what would happen if everyone on Earth simply stopped dying. People continue to age, get sick, injured and far worse (And believe me, you get to see the far worse), but no one dies. On the surface it may not sound all that bad, but with rapid population growth and a strange connection to Captain Jack and the Torchwood institute, it's clear that something sinister is afoot.

Davies is a fan of these high-concept, Earth changing events and it appears that he has an exciting ten-episode story in store for us. It may not be the Daleks dragging the Earth to the farthest reaches of the universe, which unsurprisingly, no one acknowledges, but it's an intriguing premise nonetheless.

Jack's back!

Davies does fall back on his oft-used TV anchor montage to convey that the Miracle Day event exists on a planetary scale. It's not so bad but he does use it more than once, which will be frustrating for some of Davies' more vocal detractors.

For those looking for little shreds of continuity referencing Doctor Who, there isn't much here. One shot reveals that Jack is still in possession of the Vortex Manipulator, but I would be surprised if he uses it this season. I'm really curious to see how they will explain Jack's immortality to a potential new audience though. Part of me expects a clean break from anything referencing The Doctor but that shall remain to be seen. They may have found a way around it in the first episode already.

"The New World" is a promising start to Torchwood: Miracle Day. This is a great mix of action, mystery and comedy that fans of the previous seasons are sure to enjoy. With an exciting concept and a fresh new setting, this latest season could be the best yet.

Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres Friday, July 8th at 10:00pm on Starz.